Saturday, 3 May 2014

Chocolate Orange Brownies

I am still pursuing my New Years resolution to get better at baking! Tom has wanted me to make him brownies for a while now. Last night I decided to get my baking on and after watching Masterchef we got inspired to make something a little different! A girl made chocolate orange fondants which apparently turned out tasty amazing. Tom and I love Terry's chocolate oranges so with this taste combo in mind I had a go at making chocolate orange brownies!

Since this was a total trial bake, I made a small batch which resulted in 9 decent sized brownie squares. I used a 20cm square baking tin and the mixture fitted perfectly into it.

For a small batch of brownies:

100g butter

150g plain chocolate

2 eggs

Zest of an orange

175g caster sugar

50g plain flour

30g cocoa powder

50g dark chocolate chunks

I started off by preheating the oven to 180C and lining the baking tin with grease proof paper. I melted the butter, chocolate and the orange zest over a bain-marie. Stir continuously until it's smooth and then leave to cool. At this stage I was worried the mixture was too orangey and the zest was a horrible texture but once mixed with everything else and baked it all ended well!

While the chocolate mixture is cooling, whisk together the caster sugar and eggs until it is almost white. If you have an electric whisk (lucky you) whisk until the mixture has doubled in size. Carefully stir this into the cooled chocolate. Next add the flour and cocoa powder and lastly the chocolate chunks. You could use pieces of chocolate orange but we decided the recipe made the brownies orangey enough. When you are happy with everything put it into the baking tin and then into the oven.

I baked the brownies for 30-35 minutes and took it out when the mixture was still a bit wet. Once cooled the brownies had set well but kept moist. I'm really pleased with how they turned out. There is a perfect balance of chocolate and orange flavours. We are thinking about making another batch or two in the next few days. I would suggest eating a few whilst they are still warm with some ice cream- a perfect dessert! Tom and I both agree they taste even better once cooled down.

Let me know if you try the recipe! What are your opinions on chocolate orange- perfect combo or too sweet? Thanks for reading <3